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merry christmas batchers! anyone get anything starwars related? drop all the star wars related gifts in the comments! 

enjoy a post for the holiday today! 🎄 

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When Saedii woke, she was a prisoner once again.

Her body felt worn down and heavy as she blinked at the soft grey ceiling above her. It took her a moment before she realized that it was made of a dull metal, not stone. An unfamiliar ceiling.

A new prison.

She looked around her, tracing the walls, which looked like stray pieces of metal that had been scavenged and welded together – all mismatched and different colors, some bearing call numbers of ships and transport vessels. It was bigger than her cell. Warmer, too. The door that hummed softly ten feet away was a light blue.

Something soft was beneath her head. A pillow? Gingerly, she reached beneath her, stiffening at the soft cushioned mattress that met her hand. At the sheets, which were threadbare and smelled of the forest.

What kind of trick was this? What new hell did Krell have in store for her?

Saedii struggled to control her expression as she sat up, finding a hoverbed beneath her. On the small floating table beside her, a large glass of cool water sweated a ring of perspiration, and a steaming plate of food made her mouth water.

This was nothing like Krell had shown her before. Nothing like the visions of Ord Mantell that he made her relive. Nothing like the bowels of Kamino or the streets of Taltherra. It was nice. Relaxing.

She didn't trust it. She'd failed – allowed herself to be captured. Krell would punish her severely for it.

A high beeping sound drew her attention. Behind her bed, built into the wall, was a heartrate monitor, which spiked in time with her beating heart. Tucked into the thin skin on the back of her right hand, an IV pumped some kind of clear liquid.

Instinctively, she reached for it. Something silver flashed.

Her metal arm. Someone had fixed it.

A preternatural stillness leveled on her shoulders. The silver fingers flexed as she tested them, just as they had before they'd been ripped off. A perfect fix.

It was all deceptively pleasant – a soft bed to wake in, food and drink waiting for her, her arm restored. By all means, it had the making of a perfect dream.

But this was no dream. Krell only showed nightmares. Sooner or later, the peaceful pretense would drop and she'd be left to some terrible torture. Made to kill her family or die a slow painful death.

Soft white pajamas – a long sleeved shirt and pants, made of airy cotton – had replaced the black clothes she'd worn in her cell. With her metal hand, she reached beneath the shirt, checking for the necklace.

Nothing but skin.

The heartrate monitor spiked. Definitely a nightmare. It would only be a matter of time before something bad happened.

Saedii glanced around her, listening. It was quiet here, except for the beeping of the heart rate monitor. Krell's voice didn't whisper to her from the dark. Didn't give her instructions.

What was she supposed to do? How did she end the nightmare?

With a jerk, she yanked the heart rate monitors off her chest. The screen beeped shrilly behind her.

"You need those," a gruff voice said from the hall.

She stilled.

Hunter was waiting just outside the door. His face looked older than she remembered it – like he'd aged three years in the span of one. He'd pulled his hair back into a bun at the nape of his neck, using his bandana to tame the flyaways.

This was different. Krell always showed her the vision of Hunter that she remembered best – how he'd looked the day she was captured. He had never aged him before.

"AZI said the wound on your back got infected. He's been monitoring your progress on the antibiotics," Hunter explained.

Unconsciously, she reached for her back. A little hiss escaped her lips as she brushed against a bandage at her shoulder. Beneath it, the outline of a neat row of stitches poked at the pads of her fingers.

Krell was gearing up for something truly terrible. All of this pretense – it was leading to a horrible punishment. Trying to get her guard down.

She wouldn't fall for it. With a dark look at him, she yanked the IV from her skin.

Hunter's sharp eyes tracked the move. Some kind of emotion reflected in their depths, but Saedii couldn't place it. "The needle won't hurt you, kid. Nothing here will hurt you."

That was a lie. There was something waiting. She knew it.

"You're safe now."

The look she gave him was full of violence and death. She would never be safe again. And she wasn't falling for Krell's tricks.

Her eyes flicked the length of her cell. Maybe she was supposed to free herself. To escape from wherever the Batch had brought her. But she'd never allowed herself to be rescued before. She didn't even know where the hell they were keeping her.

"Do you know where you are?" Hunter asked hesitantly.

Saedii didn't answer.

"You're on Teth. At the stronghold."

Alarm froze the breath in her lungs. How did Krell know about Teth? She'd tried very hard to keep thoughts of the Rebellion far from her thoughts whenever she was in a nightmare. Had gone to great pains to ensure that the location of the secret base was never rooted from her mind.

If he knew about Teth, then Hunter and the others – the real Hunter – would be in danger.

"How?" she asked. Her voice was coarse.

"We rescued you –"

"How did you know about Teth?"

Hunter gave a little frown. "I've always known. Same as you."

The glare she leveled on him deepened. If looks could kill, he would have been dead by now.

He watched the play of emotion on her face and rubbed at his jaw. "Do you know who I am?"

An odd question. Of course she knew. Krell wouldn't taunt her with strangers.

"Hunter."

For some reason, her answer made his lips press together in a pale line. "And do you know who you are?"

Finally, an easy question. One she'd answered a thousand times.

"I am the Twelfth Sister," she answered obediently.

Someone out of sight adjusted their weight. She tried to peer through the door but wasn't able to make out any faces.

Hunter was frowning again. "You're not an Inquisitor."

"I am," she snapped. "And you're a traitor."

"Who have I betrayed?"

"The Empire."

He rubbed at his jaw. Looking troubled. "The Empire is the real enemy. You know this. You fought against them. Fought with us."

She climbed from her bed, holding his gaze the entire way as she walked to the door. Her legs were unsteady and weak, but that didn't stop her as she walked right up to the light, as she glared up at him.

In a voice sharp as a knife, she asserted, "I serve the Empire. It is my job to eradicate the galaxy from those who would threaten this new order. To kill people like you."

That hesitant, slightly detached mask finally cracked on his face. He looked at her in anguish and confusion. Like he didn't recognize the face that stared back at him.

"Saedii," he began. "This isn't you."

"Saedii is dead. I killed her when I accepted the mantle of the Inquisitors," Saedii snarled, knowing the words that Krell wanted to hear.

"No, kid. You're not dead. You're safe –"

Saedii's metal arm slammed against the door. Hunter didn't flinch but his eyes tightened at the inherent aggression in the move. The implied threat.

"Let me out," she ordered.

He looked devastated. "I can't. You're too dangerous right now, kid. Not in the right mindset. You could hurt yourself or someone else –"

"I will kill you. All of you."

"Why?" he demanded.

"Because it is my duty."

"It's not your duty. This isn't who you are. You're a Jedi –"

Her fist banged against the light again with her rising anger. "I am the Twelfth Sister!" she raged through gritted teeth. "I am an agent of darkness, and I swear that when I get out, I will kill you, slowly and painfully, like I have a thousand times before."

His eyes narrowed at the last part. "What do you mean by that?"

Silence was her answer. Krell was intentionally trying to stoke her anger, but she wouldn't raise to the bait. He would punish her if she lost her focus. Make this all worse somehow.

Though how it could get worse, she had no idea. In her brief time awake, she'd already catalogued every inch of this cell. Had gone over the walls and the ceiling, searching for a weakness. But there was none.

Unless Hunter let her out, then she was trapped.

Hunter was staring at her face. Looking into her eyes, which felt wild with all the emotion she suppressed.

The people out of sight began to whisper. Their voices were so low that Saedii couldn't make them out, but she was sure they were Clone voices.

A terrible thought occurred to her. Was Krell going to make her butcher the entire Teth stronghold? All ten thousand Clones that had pledged themselves to Rex and to freedom?

It would be the worst thing he'd ever made her do, but it would certainly fit him. It would be a punishment worthy of her capture. Equal to the price of allowing her to be taken to freedom.

"I will kill them all," she vowed, speaking out loud so that Krell would hear and be pleased. "Every person here – every Clone, every droid, anyone that dares to get in my way."

"You won't," Hunter vowed solemnly. "I won't let you."

She bared her teeth at him. "You won't be alive to stop me."

Grief settled into his features. He looked at her like she was a corpse speaking through dead lips. Like he was mourning her. "What happened to you, kid?" he whispered.

Everything, she nearly said. But Krell wouldn't like that answer, and so she said nothing at all.

"Whatever he did," Hunter said slowly, "we will fix it. We will make you better, I promise you."

"You can't save me," Saedii promised back. How many times had he tried – and failed?

"I will."

She gave a bleak bark of laughter. "What if I'm not worth saving?"

"You are." Hunter was suddenly adamant. "Whatever you did, it wasn't your fault. Krell got into your mind. He manipulated you. Controlled you –"

"Krell didn't make me kill all those people. I did it on my own."

Hunter's lips were bloodless. "Yes, he did."

"You don't know. You weren't there –"

"We know, kid."

There was an echo of faint footsteps. Saedii looked up as Echo and Crosshair emerged, both tense. The looks they gave her were both full of pity and guilt. Sadness. Echo had something black in his hand that he passed to Hunter, who held it up for Saedii to see.

It was her helmet. The one with the silver tears.

She frowned at it. Usually, Krell didn't let her hide behind a helmet in these nightmares. He wanted her victims to see her face – to know it was her and beg her mercy.

"Wolffe brought this back from Nal Kopak. When they tried to save you," Hunter said quietly. "Do you remember that?"

Echo was only a step behind him, eyes on her face. But Crosshair hid along the far wall. His eyes looked everywhere but at her, and his body language was defeated. Drained.

They looked different, too. Crosshair had a peppering of shadow across his jaw like he hadn't shaved in a while, and Echo had deep purple bags beneath his eyes. Neither one wore their armor, but the clothes they had on were black and edged in red. Similar to the clothes of the Inquisitors.

When she didn't answer, Hunter explained, "Tech was able to hack the video feeds. We saw everything that Krell did to you. All the people he made you kill. All the times he hurt you. None of this is your fault."

"I enjoy my duty," she tried, but Echo cut her off.

"We saw you kid. Saw your face." He shook his head, lost for words. "You were terrified. You were crying. Krell was hurting you."

She gave him a cruel little smile. "Maybe you only saw what you wanted to. Maybe you were so determined to see the girl you'd lost and not the monster she became."

"You're not a monster," Hunter insisted.

Saedii met his gaze. "Monster. Murderer. Traitor. I am all of these things and more."

Hunter and Echo exchanged a brief look. Behind them, Crosshair's jaw clenched and he crossed his arms tightly across his chest.

"You couldn't save me," Saedii said, just to twist the knife a little deeper. "I am what I am because of your failure, and you can't live with that truth. So now you make false promises to save someone who no longer exists to alleviate some of that guilt. Not for my sake, but for yours."

Crosshair flinched. Hunter grimaced.

A new voice called out from the darkened hall, "I believe that is enough for now, Sargent."

From the shadows, Obi-Wan emerged, hands clasped behind him. At the sight of him, Saedii's lips pulled back into a sneer and she reached for a weapon that wasn't there.

"Jedi," she snarled.

"Hello, little one."

She banged against the door again, this time with both arms. This must be what Krell wanted – for her to kill the Jedi. Only Obi-Wan's death would release her from this nightmare.

"Krell's manipulation runs deep. It will take time to undo," Obi-Wan said to Hunter, though his attention remained on Saedii. "For now, I believe that Rex is right. She will need to remain here for her safety as well as ours."

"Coward," Saedii spat. "Let me out."

Hunter glanced at her uneasily. "How long will she be in here?"

"Until we can reverse whatever Krell has done to her."

"What did he do? This isn't like her."

"I don't know. I have never seen anything like this."

Her fists rattled on the glass again. "You can't save me. No one can. This nightmare only ends with your death."

Obi-Wan looked at her mildly. "What nightmare, little one?"

Karabast. She'd said too much. Krell didn't know that she could tell the difference – didn't know that her empty neck told her that her friends and this cell weren't real. That all of the lives she took held no real consequences outside of her own head.

She glowered at him.

At her refusal, Obi-Wan looked to Hunter. He gave a low sigh. "I believe we have much to discuss."

Hunter cut a reluctant look in Saedii's direction.

"Go," Echo said quietly. He glanced at Saedii sadly. "I'll keep an eye on her for now."

With a quick pat on Echo's shoulder, Hunter followed Obi-Wan down the hall. Crosshair lingered for a moment, haunted gaze flicking up to Saedii's before he followed after them.

Saedii glared at Echo. "You can't save me."

"We can, kid. And we will. No one here is giving up on you."

Funny. Because Saedii had given up on herself long ago.